>
>
> >I just checked at The Lives of Bees T Seeley (no mention of direction)
> and googled natural nest images (most show perpendicular to entrance).
>
Some European beekeepers place their hive entrances crosswise to the combs
rather than lengthwise.  Would be a simple controlled trial to perform to
determine the benefit, if any.

>
> >2) CO2 is heavier than air so it will drop to the bottom of a hive
> (technically speaking) if bees don't have active/passive way of controlling
> internal levels?

If that were the case, we'd all have suffocated by now : )  Natural
molecular motion overcomes gravity, keeping all gases evenly mixed.


> >Have any studies looked at /compared CO2 levels within the hives under
> different weather conditions when the hive has both a top and lower
> entrance / a top only entrance (simulated bottom entrance being blocked /
> and only a bottom entrance.
>
You'd need to do the calcs to see whether the escaping air of a cluster
would temporarily rise or fall due to gravity, taking into account percent
water vapor (lighter than air), the differences in CO2 and O2 relative to
the atmosphere, and the molecular density due to higher relative
temperature.

>
> >My thought was that if suffocation was by CO2 poisoning

Honey bees tolerate very high CO2 levels.  I'm not sure whether they'd
first die from oxygen deprivation before CO2 toxicity.

-- 
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com

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